Harrison Co. Prepares for Nov. Election
Harrison County officials are hoping for an election night with no issues. Connie Rockco, Harrison County District 5 Supervisor, says, “We’re hoping for no confusion and everything to run smoothly. I mean, people are human and there’s always going to be certain mistakes that are made just by error, but we’re going to try to cut down on those as much as possible.”
In June, a ballot mix up in the primary election created a lot of confusion throughout Harrison County. Republican Party ballots coded for one precinct were being used at other precincts. The Election Commission already has a plan in place to prevent this from happening again.
They’re inspecting all of the scanning equipment to make sure it will work properly and are providing full training for poll workers, as well as preparing for a good number of voters. Toni Jo Diaz, Harrison County District 1 Election Commissioner, says, “Big turnout I think. It’s hard to determine the percentage. It just varies, it just varies from election to election, but this time I think it might be a bigger turnout than previous elections.”
There about 95,000 eligible voters in Harrison County. Of those, the Election Commission expects between 52 and 55% of those voters to come out. One change voters and poll workers will see on November 4th is the shift to electronic poll books to verify in-person voter registration. Diaz closes, “The electronic poll books is going to work good because we used them in 2012 and it worked, but we didn’t have them in every precinct, but this time we’re gonna’ have them in all precincts.”
Ipads and tablets being used as electronic poll books will make important voting information available right at the tip of the poll worker’s fingers. For example, if someone shows up at the wrong precinct, it will instantly provide the address to the correct one.
For more information on voter requirements, contact the Harrison County Circuit Clerk at (228) 865-4051.
Leave a Reply